Projectile properties messed up

chimeric

I tested and found that "Curved path" does nothing, on or off, but instead "Multiple projectiles" sends the projectiles on a far-flung curve. The actual number of projectiles remains the same, but when they return and strike, each applies the effect twice. There are no options in sight to configure any of this, and the properties are clearly misnamed and broken.

kjeron

The "Speed" offset(0xa) of multiple projectiles controls their angle/arc/curve, and at high enough values, the delay between the inner projectiles and the outer projectiles hitting. The value can be positive or negative, but not zero(can crash).

chimeric

I know about Speed. It's pretty spectacular, the arcs magic missiles make before returning and chasing the poor Kagain's dwarf ass, at high values.

But speed only works this way if "Multiple projectiles" is selected, and then, for some reason, you get exactly two of the projectiles, no more, no less. They are not really visible either. "Curved path" does nothing at all together or alone - without the multiple on, speed only chucks the projectile faster on the straight path. This is all clearly wrong, and I saw an even weirder behavior when I tested the multiple with Fireball instead of MM. What happens is that the fireball splits in a fireball and a small stretch of lightning, which fly off in the opposite directions to converge later on the target and deliver that double hit. I have NO idea why that happens, but I suspect that the multiple flag, instead of copying the projectile BAM, erroneously selects another projectile from the available list. I suspect it because I think - I think - I saw a dagger thrown at the target, in an arc, along with the magic missile, when I was testing the MM. A dagger is just small and it's hard to be sure.

In short: Beamdog, please make it so that a curved path is really set by "Curved path," so that "Multiple" does what it says, so that all of the projectiles are of the same kind and so that we can select how many projectiles should be lobbed.

kjeron

The Multiple Projectile flag works by sending every projectile listed before it numerically in PROJECTL.IDS until it reaches one without the Multiple Projectile flag, which becomes the "base projectile".

For example, the Force Missile projectiles consist of the base projectile(#437), followed by 10 consecutive entries of another projectile(#438-447), itself identical to the base projectile except for its speed and "Multiple Projectile" flag. #437 fires one missile, #438 fires 2 missiles, #439 fires 3 missiles, #440 fires 4 missiles, etc...

The "Curved Path" flag indeed does nothing, if you don't want a curved path, use a speed of "-1" in the multiple projectile, and they will all fly straight to the target overlapping each other.

If you are looking for the projectiles to fly out at an angle without every turning towards the target, you are out of luck. Targeted projectiles home-in on their target by default. The only flag that disables this is the "Pass Target" flag, which overrides the "Multiple Projectile" flag. The closest you can get is a cone-shaped projectile.

chimeric

I do want a curved path! But without multiple projectiles. For just one. Why is it that I must have multiple checked for anything to curve?

This all started with me using the multiple targets feature of spells. I made a version of Magic Missile that shoots one missile up to five times at up to five targets instead of using salvo projectiles that all hit the same target. The targeted version doesn't look that great, though, because I set it to fire the stand-alone MM projectile, which just flies in a straight line - like from a Wand of Missiles. All of the missiles fired at the same target fly out at once, on the same path and with the same speed, so they blend in just one glow ball. With some "Start random frame" flags and such it's possible to make them a little separate, but on the whole it's bland. So I wanted to use curved paths for that basic missile projectile, hoping they would separate on the way. But the curving seems reserved for the multiple projectile set-ups.

You see what I mean now? I want to randomize the paths... except "Random path" just fires them into the blue.

kjeron

Not possible to my knowledge. I think your closest option would be to create a variety of dummy/invisible projectiles as the extra/multiple projectiles(to induce the curve), with only a single visible projectile among the mix.
The actual effects of the spell would need to be delivered in a separate projectile, so it doesn't trigger multiple times.

The dummy projectiles would be identical but without any BAM to display, so you would have in PROJECTL.IDS:

### EFFECT1  // No BAM, Desired Speed, Use this one in spell
### DUMMY1A  // No BAM, Same Speed as EFFECT1
### VISUAL1A  // Has BAM, Flagged Multi, Speed = Arc, Use this one in spell
### VISUAL1B  // Has BAM, Same Speed as EFFECT1
### DUMMY1B  // No BAM, Flagged Mutli, Speed = Arc, Use this one in spell

Using projectiles #'s for VISUAL1 or DUMMY2 would display a single arcing projectile, one would arc to the right, the other would one arc to the left.

Using projectile # for EFFECT1 would deliver the spells effects.

Base Spell:
	Projectile:None
	Effects:
		Cast Spell1(probability:100)
		Cast Spell2(probability:50-100)
		Cast Spell3(probability:0-49)
Spell1: Projectile: # EFFECT1, intended effects
Spell2: Projectile: # VISUAL1A, no effects
Spell3: Projectile: # DUMMY1B, no effects

You could create additional paths, but would need a separate Projectile chain for each.

### DUMMY2A  // No BAM, Same Speed as EFFECT1
### DUMMY2B  // No BAM, Flagged Multi, Speed = Arc
### VISUAL2A	// Has BAM, Flagged Multi, Speed = Arc, Use this one in spell

### DUMMY2C  // No BAM, Same Speed as EFFECT1
### VISUAL2C  // Has BAM, Flagged Multi, Speed = Arc
### DUMMY2D	// No BAM, Flagged Multi, Speed = Arc, Use this one in spell

Base Spell:
	Projectile:None
	Effects:
		Cast Spell1(probability:100)
		Cast Spell2(probability:75-100)
		Cast Spell3(probability:50-74)
		Cast Spell4(probability:25-49)
		Cast Spell5(probability:0-24)
Spell1: Projectile: # EFFECT1, intended effects
Spell2: Projectile: # VISUAL1A, no effects
Spell3: Projectile: # DUMMY1B, no effects
Spell4: Projectile: # VISUAL2A, no effects
Spell5: Projectile: # DUMMY2D, no effects

I don't think there is any way to insure that no two of the projectiles targeting the same creature would use the same path, due to how probability is rolled by the game.

chimeric

Well, that's very detailed. Someone should it use for the Magic Missile. I wanted something simple.